JACKSON HOLE HEADLINES

Grand Targhee Resort will ask Teton County, Wyoming commissioners to extend the deadline of its resort expansion plan.   The agreement expires in February of 2011….but resort owner Geordie Gillett says it “isn’t going to be happening in the very near future.”    County Commissioners have already extended deadlines for two other projects due to changed economic conditions.   One of those was a project at Teton Village.

 

Teton County, Wyoming Commissioners have warned department heads to prepare for some serious funding cutbacks this year…and they’ll likely include significant reductions in “service” programs. They’ve asked agency heads to come up with scenarios for cuts of 10-20 and 30% based on projections of a 12% decline in county revenues.    They’re still considering the option of an additional lodging and/or half-cent sales tax increase.  

 

Grand Teton National Park senior wildlife biologist Steve Cain has been awarded the National Park Service regional director’s award for professional excellence in natural resources. Cain’s contributions include an initiative to protect the migration corridor for pronghorn antelope.

 

Wyoming Game and Fish is among a number of partners participating in a new conservation easement at the Diamond H Ranch near Kemmerer in Lincoln County.   Spokesman Ray Haggeman says the “24 hundred acre conservation easement will protect multiple wildlife habitats and benefit many species of wildlife. These lands are classified as crucial winter range and year-long range.”

The McGinnis family has operated the Diamond H cattle ranch since 1886. 

 

Faced with some large budget cuts, the Information Technology team at the Teton County Library has come up with a way to save the library between 100 and 115 thousand dollars per year.   The I.T. experts developed an innovative open source software code that creates self-checker kiosks. They allow patrons to check out library materials themselves….which reduces the time library staff spend on those routine tasks. Proprietary systems typically cost 15 to 30 thousand dollars and the library has used two of them. That new technology is now being shared with all other Wyoming libraries.

 

Congress hasn’t seen a pay cut since Franklin Roosevelt was President. But, Wyoming Congressman Cynthia Lummis is co sponsoring a bill that would change that. The bill would institute a five percent pay cut for all senators and representatives starting January 1, 2011. The bill would also block any automatic congressional pay increase for 2012. If passed, the bill would reduce member salaries for the first time since April 1, 1933.

 

Lt. Colonel Brian Nesvik of Pinedale will assume command of the Wyoming Army National Guard’s 115th Fires Brigade in June. He’ll take command from Colonel Richard Knowlton of Cheyenne, who’s stepping down to attend US Army War College. Both men are currently deployed to Kuwait as part of the largest Wyoming Guard deployment in history.

 

‘Lest you nap through it…this is National Sleep Awareness Week.   Long and short…most of us aren’t getting enough. At St. John’s Medical Center…Sleep Disorder Clinic Director Joe Burke explains, ”We just live in a 24 hour world anymore and people try to shave off the necessity of the amount of time they have to sleep with other activities. But we just absolutely need to make time for sleep. Your body does not function properly without an adequate amount of sleep.”

And, for adults that’s about eight hours per night and for school aged kids nine to nine and a half hours. And, Burke says most of us aren’t getting enough of it. ”The single greatest reason for insomnia…and insomnia is, hands down, the most common disorder by far….and the greatest reason for that is stress. Pain can also keep people from sleeping, but stress is certainly the biggest reason.”

Coincidentally, we’ll all lose an hour of sleep this weekend when Daylight Savings Time takes effect.  

 As part of National Sleep Awareness Week…you can find some tips on the St. John’s web-site at www.tetonhospital.org

While it’s become a political issue…the health care advocacy group Families USA claims health care reform is really a matter of life and death. Executive Director Ron Pollack says his group’s studies indicate about 11 hundred Idahoans and 500 Wyoming residents will prematurely die over the next nine years if a pending health care reform bill fails to pass Congress.

Pollack said Friday, “In the 15 years since health care reform was last debated (1995-2009), more than 290,000 American adults (25-64 years old) died prematurely due to a lack of health coverage. If Congress fails to pass health reform, the number of Americans who will lose their lives will continue to grow. In the next 10 years (2010-2019), more than another 275,000 adults will die prematurely due to a lack of health insurance coverage across the nation.”

Western states have been holding their breath to learn how the Department of Interior would approach endangered species management of sage grouse in the region. They’re breathing a bit easier after Assistant Secretary for the US Fish and Wildlife Service Ted Strickland announced Friday, ”The greater sage grouse does warrant the protection of the endangered species act. However, we are proposing to not list the species at this time because of the need to address higher priority species ahead of it.”

Strickland said the action was avoided thanks to aggressive management at the state level. ”A number of western states have been very out front in terms of doing very important work to protect the habitat of sage grouse….Wyoming, Montana and Idaho in particular. Management of the species will continue to be a state rather than a federal responsibility.”

Sage grouse populations have declined by 90% from historic levels while their habitat has shrunk by 50%.   It’s blamed on fire, invasive species, agricultural and energy development.

 

Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal was surprised by the move. “Naturally, I would have preferred a ‘not-warranted’ finding. I accept the determination that has been made by the Fish and Wildlife Service. I am encouraged by the fact that the Department of the Interior is willing to work with us so that part of the burden of maintaining the species is borne on federal land and does not simply burden private and state land.”

 

Wyoming’s Congressional delegation issued the following statement.

            “If it isn’t one thing it is another with the sage grouse listing. The State of Wyoming, its industries and its citizens have worked tirelessly to protect the sage grouse and avoid an ESA listing. More unpredictability in this ruling means more uncertainty for Wyoming jobs,” said Enzi.

            “Wyoming companies need certainty to make investments that will create thousands of jobs, and provide energy security for America. The FWS determination creates more questions than it answers.  People in Wyoming who are looking for work or worrying about their current job now must continue to wait for a concrete decision from the Administration,” said Barrasso.

            “The ‘warranted but precluded’ listing only further illustrates that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife agency should be focusing its time and resources on species facing imminent extinction, not species already benefitting from aggressive, state-level conservation efforts like those ongoing for the sage grouse in Wyoming,” Lummis said. “Such a listing also allows for the continued management of the species by state, not federal, wildlife agencies – a provision of the listing I fully intend to ensure is honored. Wyoming’s efforts to protect the sage grouse must be recognized.”         Listing the sage grouse would be one of the most significant listings in the history of the Endangered Species Act, as far as total number of states and land area involved, according to the delegation.

 

Energy conservation programs are proving to be very successful in the Jackson Hole area.   Using a ten thousand dollar investment, Lower Valley Energy spokesman Brian Tanabe says the Four Seasons Resort in Teton Village is a prime example. ”They did work on their lighting system and through their work they’ll be saving 405,000 kilowatt hours a year…just from lighting alone.” 

That work involved changing out many light bulbs to more energy efficient CFL’s.   Similar energy audits are available to all residential and commercial Lower Valley customers. ”We’re going to come in and look at the efficiency or in-efficiency of your home and we’re going to give you a list of things to do. If you do any one of the items on that list…we will give you that initial fee back.”

 

The Wyoming legislature adjourned its biennium session Friday after approving a two point eight billion dollar, two year general fund budget. Governor Dave Freudenthal signed it into law later in the day.   54 Senate bills and 67 House bills cleared both Houses this year.

 

Often considered one of the most popular governors in the nation….Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal announced Thursday he will not be a candidate in 2010.   He thanked Wyoming citizens for the opportunity and state agency heads and employees for making his two terms in office a success. “The more important purpose of today is for Nancy and me to thank the Wyoming citizens for allowing us the opportunity to serve as your Governor and First Lady. As I am fond of saying, in the end being Governor is still just a job – a unique one – but a job nonetheless,” said Freudenthal. “In the remaining ten months of my term, we will continue to serve the State to the best of our ability. Although, I must admit that the time previously dedicated to campaigning will now be dedicated to simply enjoying the great people and unique outdoor lifestyle of Wyoming,”

The 59 year old Freudenthal indicated he and his family reached the decision not to seek re-election over the Christmas holidays. First Lady Nancy Freudenthal is nominated to become the next US District Judge for Wyoming.

As for a successor, Freudenthal said he believes there are good candidates on both sides of the political aisle.

 

The Afton municipal airport has won a $229 thousand Federal Aviation Administration grant.   It’ll be used to install perimeter fencing. As we reported earlier this week…the Jackson Hole Airport received $1.1 million from that same fund to help pay for expansion of the airport terminal building.

 

Grand Teton National Park Superintendent Mary Gibson Scott has been named acting Regional Director for the National Park Service intermountain region. That consists of 91 park units in eight states. She replaces Mike Snyder, who retired, beginning in mid March. The agency will conduct a competitive search for a permanent regional director in the near future.

Scott’s duties at Grand Teton will fall to Deputy Superintendent Bob Vogel.

Wyoming Senator John Barrasso took Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to task this week for implementing new oil and gas regulations.   He invited the secretary to visit Wyoming and get a look at the impacts. “People in the West are concerned because the regulations are already in place. These regulations are impacting the red, white and blue jobs that have powered our country and are such good jobs in our state. So it just seems that maybe we could have had this discussion before the regulations went in place.”

Salazar indicated, there’s still time to make some adjustments, ”Some of our efforts are still very much in draft form, so we look forward to trying to get someplace where there can be agreement.”

Salazar said he moved quickly in order to give the public and industry certainty about government regulations.

 

Wyoming, Utah and Nevada Senators…part of the Senate Western Caucus…are trying to stop what they call a Department of Interior Strategy to designate seventeen natural monuments in the west under the federal Antiquities Act.   Those areas include historic areas within the Red Desert in Wyoming….support of easements to protect wildlife corridors between the Wind River and Wyoming Range….and wildlife protections in the Pioneer Range around Craters of the Moon in Idaho.    The Senators claim the expansion of federal land holding is “unsustainable”. 

 

2010 Census forms will officially hit the mail the week of March 15th.   But, they will not be delivered to post office boxes…and that’s how most people in Jackson Hole and Teton Valley get their mail.   With that in mind, Census Bureau spokesperson Stacy McBain explains,”90% of people in our country will receive the census form right in their mail at their house. Other areas, and Idaho has a bunch of them, are going to have forms dropped off right at their door by a census worker.” That mail delivery issue contributed to an extremely low census return rate in 2000.   Teton County had a 54% return rate in 2000…the 2nd lowest in Wyoming.   Door to door delivery of those forms began this week.

If you’re worried about security issues, McBain advises census workers all carry identification and a name badge and they’ll be dropping the forms at the door. A census worker will never ask for bank or credit card numbers.

 

Latest design plans for an expansion and remodeling of the Teton County Library go to a public forum in Jackson Thursday.   Library Director Deb Adams will ask the Library Board for final approval. ”The architecture team will share with the public their current, refined drawings, now in a stage called “design development.” In this stage, a solid concept is established expressing the character and image of the library addition. The architecture team will present floor plans, elevations and models, demonstrating different views of the exterior and interior of the building.”

She says the expansion is clearly needed. The library is currently seeing over 11 hundred people each week….an increase of 122% over the past decade. ”Even in the early 90’s when this was being built, we always anticipated that the community and library use was going to grow. Thought was given to where an addition might possibly go. It was designed for some sort of addition on the south side…which is exactly where we’ve gone.”

She’ll ask for final approval of cost estimates and plans tonight (March 4). A public forum is set from 5:30 to 7 in the Library Reading Room.

The Jackson-Teton County joint planning commission is back to work tonight…focusing on Theme Five of a new comprehensive plan. Work on the economic component is expected to take two weeks before the commission looks at public service issues. County Planner Jeff Daugherty says the comp plan process is now reaching its “home- stretch”. ”We could be through the initial draft of this document during spring break…during the month of April….then we’ll take three weeks off while the staff rewrites all the changes the planning commissions created and then we’ll take it one more time and ask “did we get it right?”   The document could go to elected officials this summer.

 

Wyoming Congressman Cynthia Lummis is co-sponsoring a bill intended to reinstate oversite and transparency measures tracking government payments under the Equal Access to Justice Act. That act helps individuals, small business and non profit organizations seek judicial redress against the federal government. It hasn’t been tracked since 1995.